Orion is scheduled to splash down off the coast of Baja California around 12:40 p.m. EST on Sunday (Dec. 11).
over the Pacific Ocean at about 12:20 p.m. EST on Sunday while traveling 25,000 mph . This tremendous speed will generate a lot of friction; Orion's heat shield will have to handle temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit — about half as hot as the surface of the sun.
The capsule will bounce off the upper atmosphere briefly and then come back down, like a rock skipping across the surface of a pond. After this skip, Orion will descend through the atmosphere under parachutes, splashing down off the coast of Baja California at about 12:40 p.m. EST . A U.S. Navy ship, the USS Portland, will be waiting in the vicinity to retrieve the spacecraft and haul it to port in San Diego.
Reentry will begin over the open Pacific, far off the coast of South America, and Orion will head north from there. The remoteness of the capsule's path, combined with the timing — that is, during daylight hours — make this reentry a very hard target for observers on the ground, even those close to the splashdown site.
"Is anybody going to be able to see that off Baja?" Artemis 1 Flight Director Judd Frieling said during a press conference on Thursday ."There's always a chance, but we're pretty far off the coast there, so I doubt it — unless you're out there in a boat, 100 miles offshore or so.""You're more likely to hear the sonic boom as the vehicle approaches than anything," Artemis 1 Mission Manager Mike Sarafin said during Thursday's briefing.
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